Badlands Unlimited

Badlands Unlimited is a New York-based independent publisher founded by the artist Paul Chan in 2010, and consists of artist Micaela Durand (Director), Ian Cheng (Editor at Large), Parker Bruce, and Ambika Subramaniam. The press publishes texts by and with other artists in the form of paperbacks, ebooks, digital group exhibitions, a stone book, and other various media.

NEWS ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

November 21st, 2017

Badlands Holiday Sale starts today Tuesday November 21st and goes until Thursday December 14th. Works like the infamous New Proverbs protest signs, New No's posters, and Teresa Chan's follow up to her knitted Jabba the Trump Doll: Bitcoin pillows are available for 25% off. Books including the New Lo... more

November 5th, 2017

Boris Groys mentions New No's (currently on view as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art's “An Incomplete History of Protest" exhibition) in an article in the new issue of e-flux journal:
"The retrospective culminates with New No’s (2016), a poster by Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited that begi... more

September 19th, 2017

Badlands is pleased to participate in the 2017 New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 (Booth M03, Ground Floor). This year, Badlands will premiere our first installation: a not-so-faithful replica of Y.P. 99¢ &amp; UP, the retail store we operate in the Lower East Side. Like Y.P., you'll be able to buy ... more

August 3rd, 2017

Badlands Unlimited's celebrated New No's poster—made in the wake of the 2016 election—will be included in an exhibition of works from the Whitney's collection, An Incomplete History of Protest, opening August 18th, that looks at how artists from the 1940s to the present have confronted the political... more

June 12th, 2017

The New Proverbs signs were on display at the Equality March in D.C. this past weekend in the hands of the Hello Mr. team. The Daily Beast mentioned the signs in their coverage of the march, calling them "a campier spin-off of those used by the Westboro Baptist Church" and using one of the signs "Tr... more

April 20th, 2017

Badlands is excited to announce that New Proverbs, our line of protest signs, are now available for sale exclusively on the Badlands site for only $39!
Beautiful and provocative, the New Proverbs are inspired in part by the posters of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, arguably one of the pioneer... more

April 17th, 2017

Badlands' New Proverbs signs are featured in the Art &amp; Design issue of New York Magazine in an article about political art by Carl Swanson along with an image from the New Proverbs photo shoot by Matthew Raviotta and Burke Battelle. Describing the work Badlands has been making since the election... more

April 4th, 2017

Come celebrate the last day of Paul Chan's show at Greene Naftali Gallery with the launch of New Proverbs, an exclusive line of protest signs made by Chan and Badlands Unlimited. New Proverbs premiered at the history making Million Women's March in Washington D.C. and New York. They have subsequentl... more

December 7th, 2016

The New York Times' Holland Cotter included Paul Chan and Badlands' post-election response poem, New No's, in his list of Best Art of 2016. Cotter writes:
"Can there be business as usual in the climate of racism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia that the election exposed and fostered? Has an eco... more

August 10th, 2016

Publisher's Note
Badlands Unlimited was founded six years ago with the idea that historical distinctions that traditionally defined how books are read, designed, and even written were beginning to blur. We wanted to make publications that reflected this changing nature. We called them “books in an e... more

November 17th, 2015

Paul recently answered some questions about publishing for Kirkus Reviews' Q&amp;A feature. When asked what was special about our part of the industry, he said:"...we publish books for people who don’t read."See the rest of his answers here.... more

June 23rd, 2015

The June/July issue of Cultured Magazine features a profile of Paul and Badlands by Maxwell Williams in which New Lovers and Hippias Minor are discussed as well as the similarities between being an artist and being a publisher. As Paul puts it in the piece:“...I think we realize that the experience ... more

April 7th, 2015

Art in America's Associate Editor, Brian Droitcour wrote an in-depth piece discussing Paul's work and Badlands' published output since the beginning. Getting to the heart of what Badlands is all about, Droitcour writes, "For him, books aren’t just a means to convey knowledge; they are also a source ... more

January 12th, 2015

Louisa Elderton of Elephant magazine interviews Paul Chan to talk about his work, questions, biggest failures, and more...LA: What are your thoughts on the right to be forgotten? PC: I like rights in general. I find forgetting essential. To what idk.Read full interview HERE... more

December 24th, 2014

Lauren O’Neill-Butler of Artforum sits down with Badlands along with Miram Katz from Primary Information and Howie Chen of Dispatch to talk about the year in independent art publishing. Our favorite exchange?artforum.com: What are Badlands's sources for revenue?Badlands Unlimited: Paper books, e-boo... more

October 20th, 2014

Badlands Unlimited highlighted in the October issue of Art in America's "Publish To Flourish" listed as one of the 6 artists, writers, editors, and publishers on "the creative forefront of publishing today". Take a look at Paul Chan's ascii interpretation of Badlands Unlimited and look at the first ... more

October 2nd, 2014

John Chiaverina and Dan Duray at ARTnews cover this year's NYABF. They spoke to Paul Chan about his latest book New New Testament. Paul's response to the book? “I saw all these hardcover books lying around and I wanted to destroy them” ... “because I make e-books now.” Read the rest at ARTnews.... more

September 26th, 2014

Fiona Duncan at T, The New York Times magazine, highlights Badlands at this weekend's New York Art Book Fair at MoMAPS1. Duncan writes, "This young New York-based publishing house publishes e-books, traditional books and artist works that seek to break down the distinction between print, digital fil... more

August 30th, 2014

Kira Josefsson at Art in America writes a lol profile of Badlands and interviews Badlands associate director Micaela Durand. Our favorite Q+A was, "JOSEFSSON: Ebook publishing is still in its infancy, which creates a certain sense of freedom. How long before this youthfulness matures into something ... more

August 23rd, 2014

Leah Triplett writes about Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited at the New York Public Library event on the future of publishing. She notes, "The books that Chan publishes, most recently the much anticipated Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews by Calvin Tomkins, seem to develop out of his relations... more

August 23rd, 2014

Believe it or not, NPR's radio program Talk of the Nation interviews Paul Chan about founding Badlands Unlimited and the future of ebooks. It was a very slow news week. It is also kind of hilarious. Hear the interview at NPR.... more

August 23rd, 2014

Sarah Hromack writes a feature in Frieze about Badlands Unlimited. She notes, "By publishing e-books whose content deliberately tests the boundaries of major distributors – and by developing self-sustaining alternatives to their systems – Badlands Unlimited is forcing several lines of inquiry: who d... more

August 23rd, 2014

Sarah Hromack at Rhizome interviews Paul Chan about the launch of Badlands Unlimited. She writes, "The launch of artist Paul Chan’s publishing company, Badlands Unlimited, in 2010 could have been mistaken for a career non sequitur. His foray into book publishing felt at once completely futile and de... more

August 23rd, 2014

Ranya Asmar at Artbook interviews Paul Chan about Badlands as a publishing enterprise and an artistic platform. An excerpt:ARTBOOK: One great story that I have heard you tell is about the negative reaction of two women at a past New York Art Book Fair, when you presented an iPad and Kindle at your b... more

August 23rd, 2014

Matthew Erickson at the Los Angeles Review of Books pens an insightful feature on Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited. Erickson writes, "What’s perhaps most radical about Badlands Unlimited, though, is that Chan has decided to focus heavily on publishing ebooks, with paper books being somewhat secondar... more

August 23rd, 2014

Co.Design features How to Download A Boyfriend on their online magazine. They write, "This spring, Badlands released the first-ever group show curated solely for e-book readers. How to Download a Boyfriend brings together 50 artists, including Chan himself, in an interactive e-book available on iBoo... more

August 23rd, 2014

Paul Schmelzer from the Walker Art Center interviews Paul Chan about Badlands and the future of the artist book. Schmelzer writes, "The quintessential polymath, Paul Chan is an internationally known artist, experimental publisher, GIF designer, and speaker (he’s keynoting the 2012 New York Art Book ... more

August 23rd, 2014

Publishers Weekly runs a piece about the future of art books and highlights Badlands as a publisher pushing the cutting edge of art ebooks. "When the artist Paul Chan founded the art e-book publisher Badlands Unlimited in 2010, the market for digital art books was not only nonexistent and the tech s... more

April 21st, 2014

What is a book? Writer and curator Mark Sladen writes about Badlands and our take on art books, e-books and artworks, from the April 2014 issue. Sladen writes, " One of the curious things about Badlands is how few other people are making art e-books that come anywhere close to this level of interest... more

July 10th, 2012

Linda Green from Policymic writes about Badlands and the future of publishing as a digital art form. Green notes, "I just purchased my first piece of artwork the other day, for a whopping $1.99 on Amazon. It was HELL_TREE, an e-book by Petra Cortright that consists of writings and images from the ar... more